This parenting thing just doesn’t get any easier.

As you know, we have three sons. T is 10 years old and in the 5th grade. Caleb is 5 years old and just started Kindergarten this year. Andon is home with me (running me ragged) and is 2 years old.

The thing I have learned with our boys is that they each need a different type of parenting.

T has so much initiative and drive. He is getting to that age where he is really testing waters with how he speaks to us. There are some things I won’t tolerate and that’s a mouthy/back talking child! He’s not overboard, but he’s just trying to see what he can get away with.

I have NEVER had to be on T for doing school work. He has always just kind of done it. And, even when we agonized over whether to send him to Kindergarten as a *young* 5, we still went ahead with it. It wasn’t until last year (4th grade) that we were OK with that decision. Up until then, he was trying harder than most kids to be an average (or sometimes above average with A’s :) student. I am so proud of how he does in school. He certainly has areas to work on, but at least he recognizes that himself and tries harder to improve.

Andon, well, what can I say, Andon is our monster child! He has the terrible 2′s on STEROIDS! He has similar behaviors as T, but Andon is more hard headed! Talk about strong willed! I think even James Dobson would get a run for his money!

The kid undresses himself to spite me. He runs away from me at the drop of a dime. Seriously, we’ll go outside and “SWOOSH” he’s gone! We have to parent him very differently than the other two boys because they were not at ALL like this! I think they had some strong willed behavior, but not until they were at least 3 years old. I’m just praying that his monster-ness dies down at 3 (seriously, pray for that :).

Caleb, he is SO different! His personality is just plain different. He is laid back, likes being a clown and just overall *meh* when it comes to doing anything related to sports or school work. Now, he did play soccer a few seasons and he was more into looking at US to make sure we were watching him rather than watching the ball and competing. We just figured he wouldn’t be like T, and we don’t want him to be like him. We want Caleb to be himself.

He was in pre-school for two years. I sent him to a pre-school because I knew he needed socialization and we wanted to prepare him as much as possible for Kindergarten. I guess we wanted to give him a head start so he wouldn’t have to work as hard as T to *make the grade.* But, Kindergarten has been tough on him.

It all started out fun ^[1] as he got to ride the bus. But, then he was crying before he got on the bus every morning. That has since stopped thank goodness. He has struggled with number/letter recognition. It’s not all his fault, I haven’t worked with him like I should. Even though we sent him to pre-school, he didn’t learn that much. I should have worked with him more and I should have talked to his teachers but I/we didn’t.

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda…

Last week we were told Caleb is going to be in a Reading Intervention class. It will be to ensure he stays up with his classmates. I am glad that our school has a program like this, but still feel like a failure as a parent. I mean, I remember as a child I was in a similar class and I turned out fine, but I wonder if my parents felt the way I do.

Anyhoo, I gave you all that to ask you this. What types of materials have you used to encourage reading and help with letter/sight word recognition for your young child (since he is in Kindergarten)? We are doing what the teacher has suggested by reading small book sight words, but what have you found to be effective? Have you had this struggle with your kids?

From one parent to another…

Photo Credit ^[2]